Stray Observations (Game 3): Another unwelcome streetfight between Dallas and Minnesota with Dallas winning 5-2

It was up close and a little too personal.

Through two games, Dallas has been somewhat aloof. Undefeated, which is great. The cliche in hockey that ‘they can’t all be Picassos’ is an understandable sentiment, but that depends on what exactly is implied. What does it mean when none of them are? Or more specifically, what’s the threshold here? It’s one thing to win in unorthodox ways. It’s another to steal them. The thing about a heist is you’re always pushing your luck if you keep going. Tuesday’s Minnesota game wouldn’t be the moment of rubberstamping, but ideally we’d get closer to the heart of what I wrote about today for D Magazine: figuring out who Glen Gulutzan’s avatar will be.

To that end, the answers continue to elude us. It was a…feral, game. Minnesota came out swinging chingasos (eventually, literally) in a story that has become a little too familiar versus divisional opponents. It’s not the kind of thing you want to see, but it’s also not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. However, early in the year, process is more important than results, and Dallas would appear to be doing things in reverse.

That’s not a bad thing as long as the two eventually meet. I don’t want to sound hyper-critical though. Dallas really took it to the Wild in the second period, counterpunching exactly how they needed to after getting swarmed early. It was good enough to almost even up the expected goal share, even with Minnesota’s frantic third-period push.

In the end, Dallas won, and Gulutzan remains undefeated through three. Not bad.

There’s no asterisk there either. I mean, there is. But we can table the ‘hard’ (insofar as such a thing exists through three games) analysis for now. Right now we have some strays and some controversies to cover.

Power play

So far we haven’t seen much from the power play. If anything, the power play has begun to raise questions. Going into tonight Dallas was 22nd in PP conversion. But through two games, there’s no need to go panicking. While one game, conversely, doesn’t solve a PP issues, it’s still a small step forward. Granted, Dallas got a little fortunate on the first one with Jacob Middleton losing his stick, but fortune had nothing to do with that blistering entry from Roope Hintz (a player who has looked incredibly sharp despite being relatively quiet, and who looked outright dominant at times on Tuesday night). Same with the second power play. A little fortunate with the skate bounce, but luck had nothing to do with their rotation and their entry.

Oettinger with another statement

ESPN ran a pretty interesting tidbit on the Oettinger/Pete DeBoer drama. DeBoer is the official black hat of coaches versus goalies, it would seem. Well-earned I suppose. My only real thought is that Mason Marchment and Matt Dumba come across as certified Good Dudes. But this is now the second game in a row in which Oettinger has put together a stellar, confident performance that has just enough mustard on them to read like a F’ You to the skeptics, DeBoer included. (Myself included!)

Roope Hintz, still unsung

Dallas has a lot of players who are on PPG paces. Hintz is now one of them. It was hard to notice him early on with Mikko Rantanen and Jason Robertson coming out with such force. But Hintz led the forwards in icetime through the first two games, and looks faster than usual. Which is saying something. Hintz will continue to be a player to watch, as he’s the center with the most experience against top competition while also being a two-way presence. If this is his standard, 30 goals or not, Dallas will be in good shape.

Middleton’s hit on Duchene

Maybe these are homer goggles, but I just don’t get how anyone can square the word ‘principle’ — as in primary source — with Middleton’s hit not constituting a shot to the head when Duchene’s head was the primary source of impact along with the body. Your head may not be the principle point of contact in a fender bender, but that doesn’t mean it can’t generate whiplash. That analogy may appear to undercut my point, but ultimately it’s a question of what we want NHL rules to do. Do we want to leverage rules to protect the players, or do we want to continue to walk this line that is so fine as to be invisible?

I get that there is a “precipice“ for traditional heads, and Don Cherry types. “Well do you want to take out hitting completely?!” Players throw hits all the time that don’t result in the head getting jostled around. If anything, the onus should be the hitting player to aim lower; not to straddle a line that threatens the very well-being of professional athlete involved in a game; not a UFC match, a game with sticks and skates. I don’t see any issue with drawing a hard line on how players are evaluated when it comes to physical contact.

Meandering Strays

• Matt Duchene and Esa Lindell both got on the board, ironically with Lindell scoring the Duchene goal and Duchene scoring the Lindell goal.

• Mavrik Bourque still hasn’t had much opportunity to really get going — not that it’s on anyone else — but I thought he had strong legs this game.

• For the most part, I thought Gulutzan did a good job shoving the Lindell-Heiskanen pair in Kirill Kaprizov’s face. Kaprizov was held to only three shot attempts.

• Nils Lundkivst got caught with a penalty, but for the most part he still looks engaged, and assertive, and for now, looks on pace to be locked into the blueline.

• Alex Petrovic drew in for Ilya Lyubushkin. Not much to report. He played eleven minutes and ‘stood up’ for Duchene when he got popped by Middleton. Gulutzan remarked that it had nothing to do with Lyubushkin’s play. Don’t be surprised if Lyubushkin draws back in on Thursday versus the Canucks.